Caught In The Moment
by The True Fabulous KillJoy
Summary: It's the second annual Flash Day! Citizens gather from all over the city to honor their hero, only to find him in a compromising position. SnowBarry 2 Shot
1. Chapter 1

They really didn't mean for anyone to find out this way. They had planned to tell their friends, really, but it never seemed like the right time. Besides, they had been busy, with Zoom, meta-humans that wouldn't stop attacking, and of course, every day drama. Really, the past few months had been busy.

Flash Day rolled around again, and Barry was still busy. It didn't matter that Flash Day was his day; he still had to run around saving the city. In fact, being Flash Day, the bad guys seemed to be out in even higher numbers. Joe had convinced Captain Singh to increase police patrol to give the Flash part of the day off, but that could only help so much. Barry didn't mind that much. It wasn't like he could mingle amongst the crowd in his Flash uniform, so this was a way to keep busy until he was actually needed.

Dr. Stein was running his coms today, which he didn't know if he liked or not. Joe needed Cisco at the Flash Day rally, so Barry didn't have the jokes in addition to the running commentary. Dr. Stein would just go on about a scientific topic, which Barry didn't mind too much, being a scientist himself, but there were only so many times Dr. Stein could run his theories of the universe by Barry before he actually missed Cisco's bad jokes. Barry did like discussing the different universal theories, but there was a reason he was a forensic scientist.

"Barry, I think that's enough for now. Cisco just sent me one of those text messages saying that it's about time for your part in Flash Day celebrations. I'll let you know if anything big happens." Stein's voice came over Barry's coms. Barry had just stopped a bank robbery and deposited the bad guy in the back of a police car.

"Great." Barry muttered, and began to make his way to the rally. He was honored that the city felt the need to honor him, but he didn't need it. Barry didn't need thanks for saving his city; it was just the right thing to do. It kind of embarrassed him that they held an entire day just for him.

Barry arrived at the rally, on the back of the stage behind a curtain that would drop when the mayor introduced him. He took a deep breath, and paced. Not his super speed pace, but the normal speed. Barry didn't really like being the center of attention, so being introduced on stage kind of terrified him.

"Hey hero." A soft voice said. Barry turned to see Caitlin walking towards him, lab coat still on.

"Cait, I thought you had to work today." Barry said, surprised that his girlfriend showed up.

"Lunch break. I hurried over here to see you before you could go on stage. I know you don't like crowds, so I thought I would give you something that would calm you down." Caitlin said, stepping closer to Barry.

Vaguely, Barry heard the mayor get up on stage and begin to address the crowd, but his main focus was on Caitlin. It always was when she was around.

"And what would that be?" Barry asked, a smirk on his face.

"Just this." Caitlin said, and kissed him. Barry felt the familiar fireworks that happened whenever they kissed, and Barry let himself get lost in it.

So much so, that he forgot where he was, what he was wearing, and what was happening. If he had thought about it, he probably would have paid some attention to what the mayor was saying, and would have noticed when the mayor introduced him. If he was paying even any attention, he would have noticed when the curtain dropped, and the crowd that had been cheering went quiet. But no, he was too involved with kissing Caitlin. That was until something actually caught enough of his attention to make him stop.

"Oh come on! You guys couldn't have waited until next month to hook up! I had money on this!" Cisco's voice rang out over the crowd. Barry broke the kiss and looked up to see a silent crowd and reporters flashing their cameras.

"Shit." Barry said, and looked at Caitlin. While they had been kissing, she had her back to the crowd, for which Barry was grateful. He couldn't have a reporter capturing her face and his enemies using her as a hostage. She was looking at him, slightly terrified.

"Hold on!" Barry muttered, grabbing her, and flashing her back to work as quickly as he could. Barry was back at the rally within ten seconds, but the damage had been done. Reporters were shouting questions at him, all with the same idea. Barry just flashed them an awkward smile and walked up to the mayor.

"Well Flash, I won't ask who the lucky lady is, unless you want to tell us?" The mayor joked in the microphone in an attempt to calm the reporters and bring the crowd back. Barry gave a nervous chuckle and shook his head. The mayor nodded with a smile and moved on with the hope that the crowd would too.

"Because last year we honored the Flash by giving him a key to the city, this year I talked to one of his known associates to see if we could honor him in any other way. He told me to get him something very specific, and I laughed when he told me." The mayor said. "This year, Flash, to thank you for saving the city again, we would like to give you this red mug!"

The mayor pulled a plain red mug from the podium, and Barry laughed. He shot a glance at Joe, who was leaning against a police car in the back with a smirk on his face.

Barry thanked the mayor, took the mug, and showed it off to the crowd, continuing to ignore the reporters who were still clamoring to know who the girl was.

"Barry, we have an emergency." Dr. Stein's voice came over his coms. Barry's smile dropped and he placed a hand on his ear.

"What's up?" He asked, vibrating his vocal cords incase anyone was close enough to recognize his voice.

"Huge fire, Fifth and Main. It's an apartment complex and the fire department can't handle it alone." Stein said briskly.

"On my way." Barry said. He turned to the mayor. "I have to go. Crime doesn't stop just because I'm not there."

With that Barry turned and left, stopping by S.T.A.R. Labs to drop off his mug, and went to go save people, because that is what he did.


	2. Chapter 2

"But I don't want to face them!" Barry complained to Caitlin. They were hanging out at Caitlin's apartment. Well, Caitlin was relaxing at home after a stressful day at work. Barry was hiding from everyone they knew at her apartment.

"You are going to have to sometime. You can't hide out here forever." Caitlin told him.

"Can I at least hide here until after we eat pizza and watch Netflix? I really don't want to face Joe until I have to." Barry pleaded with her.

"Fine, but only because I don't have room for all the leftover pizza if you don't eat some." Caitlin said with a laugh.

Barry smiled at her and pulled her closer to him. They were cuddling on her couch, the TV on but they were too focused on each other to really watch it. Besides, it was the news, and all the news could talk about was the Flash kissing the mystery girl.

Barry's phone buzzed again, as it had been all night. Their friends had been calling them since the rally, but they had just been ignoring them. If there were an emergency, there would have been texts in addition to the phone calls.

"Cisco is going to kill us when we finally pick up the phone." Barry said. Caitlin burst out laughing.

"What? Is the image of him yelling at us that funny?" Barry questioned.

"No, its just, you are worried about just Cisco's reaction." Caitlin said. Barry looked confused, as if he should have been worried about another person's reaction.

"A little? I mean, the others will give us a hard time for a while, but Cisco can hold a grudge." Barry explained. Caitlin giggled again.

"You aren't worried about Iris's reaction maybe? I mean she is your best friend." Caitlin said.

Barry's face paled. He looked at his phone, which had stopped buzzing. It had various missed calls, a lot from Joe and Cisco, a few from Felicity, but there was just one from Iris.

"Shit." He muttered. Caitlin laughed again. "This isn't funny! Iris is going to kill me."

The pizzas arriving interrupted Barry's thoughts about Iris killing him. One of Barry's favorite sources of entertainment was seeing the delivery guy's reaction to Caitlin opening the door and accepting the ten pizzas. They were soon settled back on the couch with pizza and each other.

Unfortunately for Barry, the next day did have to come, which did involve him going to work. Barry took special precautions to avoid Joe and Cisco waiting for him at the entrance to the police station. By special precautions, Barry sped into work and locked the door behind him. Once the doors were shut, Barry breathed a sigh of relief.

That relief was short lived.

"Hello Barry." Iris's voice came from behind him.

He turned to see a very pissed off looking Iris sitting in his chair, glaring at him.

"Hey Iris." Barry said hesitantly. His best friend raised one eyebrow at this. She stood up and began to walk slowly towards him, her heals clicking on the floor.

"Hey Iris? Hey Iris?" Her voice was rising in volume as she approached. "Hey Iris! That's all you have to say to your best friend, whose call you ignored last night, and who you didn't tell you were dating someone!"

She was shouting now, and all Barry could do was cower away. She was one of the few people that truly inspired fear in him. Captain Cold, Barry could almost call him a friend now. Zoom, yeah, still appeared in his nightmares, but Barry defeated him. An angry Iris had him trembling in his boots, and for good reason. Even Joe was afraid of Iris when she got angry.

She was standing in front of him now, glaring up at him. The fact that she was shorter than him did nothing for his fear.

"How long has this been going on?" She asked him angrily.

"Uhh, about two months now." Barry answered sheepishly. Iris's eyebrows went up again.

"Two months! TWO MONTHS!" She shouted. Barry cringed. "My best friend has been in a relationship for two months and he didn't tell me! I could understand if it was a week or two, but two months is well into the relationship. Why didn't you tell me? We tell each other everything!"

Now Iris looked a little hurt, and Barry felt bad. It was true, Barry and Iris shared everything. She was his best friend.

"It kind of slipped our minds. We agreed to behave normally when we worked together so it wouldn't get weird around everyone else. And with Zoom and everything else that happened this past year, the fact that we were together didn't seem like that big of deal." Barry defended.

"Of course it's a big deal! You guys finally hooked up! My dad, Cisco, and I all had money on it. We've been waiting for this for a while now!" Iris told him.

"Sorry." Barry muttered, rubbing his head awkwardly.

"Its fine, but don't let it happen again. Now you have to dish. But most important, does she make you happy?" Iris asked, sincerity in her eyes.

Barry blushed a red that could have rivaled his Flash suit. "Yeah, she does."

"That's the most important thing." Iris said. Her phone went off and she glanced at it. "Well that's my boss telling me that I need to get another scoop on the Flash. Anything interesting you want to tell me or do I have to comb through tons of tips saying where you are and what you did?"

"What fun would your job be in I did it for you?" Barry said with a smile. Iris glared. "If you want an itinerary of what I did yesterday, Dr. Stein was running my coms. He keeps track of everything, so talk to him."

Iris smiled, gave him a hug, and unlocked the doors so she could leave.

Waiting on the other side of those giant doors were Cisco and Joe, arms crossed and looking impatient.

"Hey guys." Barry greeted with a small smile.

"You know, we weren't going to give you crap until you sped past us downstairs. We were just waiting to warn you about Iris." Joe said, entering Barry's lab.

"But now we are going to give you a lot of crap about it." Cisco said with a smirk, following Joe inside.

Barry groaned. He spent the next hour explaining the same thing to the two guys as he did to Iris; only they spent most of it heckling him. Finally, when they did leave, Barry only had an hour to finish all his work in time to meet Caitlin for lunch.

One of the perks of having super speed was that it helped to get his work done so much faster, so he was only a few minutes late to meet his girlfriend at their favorite spot in the park.

It was an old bench that had the perfect view of the entire park, with a little pond and fountain to complete the scene. The only thing that made it more perfect was the sight of Caitlin sitting on their bench, looking at the view with a smile of contentment on her face.

"Hey." Barry said softly when he got to the bench.

Caitlin jumped slightly. She hadn't noticed him arriving.

"Hey yourself." She greeted, and pecked him on the lips. They went over to a little food cart run by an older couple and purchased lunch.

"So did they give you any trouble at work today?" Caitlin asked when they were back at their bench with their food.

Barry laughed and told her of their friend's reaction to the news. What made her laugh the most was Iris's reaction.

"Well she is your best friend, I think her reaction is justified." Caitlin said with a chuckle when Barry finished.

"Yeah, but she will never let me forget it. She going to use this to guilt trip me for the rest of time." Barry said.

"Well at least the worst is out of the way." Caitlin told him with a smile, leaning on him. "But you need to go back to work soon."

"Don't ruin this. Just take in the wonderful warm breeze, the sun shining, the nice content feeling of your stomach just the right amount of full, and the fact that we get to spend time together. Don't worry about work; just enjoy the moment." Barry told her.

Caitlin looked over the park, then closed her eyes for a minute. She could feel the warmth of the sun shining down, the breeze that felt just right. The fact that Barry felt just right to rest her head on.

"Alright." She whispered. She let herself enjoy the moment.


End file.
